Click to enlarge..January 15, 2011 - A new study is urging lawmakers not to let science get in the way of sound policy when it comes to laws on children's exposure to second-hand smoke (passive smoking, shs, environmental tobacco smoking, ets, sidestream smoke, involuntary smoking) in cars. Smoking in cars carrying children should be banned whether or not science can prove exactly how risky it is, according to an article penned by Ray Pawson of the University of Leeds and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

PAPER: Myths, facts and conditional truths: What is the evidence on the risks associated with smoking in cars carrying children? , Ray Pawson, Geoff Wong, and Lesley Owen,University of Leeds, United KIngdom, Can. Med. Assoc. J., Jan 2011. The authors conclude that there is enough evidence to make a valid decision to legislate against smoking in cars with children.

Smoking in cars with children is still legal in Alberta, Quebec, the Northwest Territories and Newfoundland Labrador.

"This issue has unstoppable momentum," said Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society. "These laws have enormous public support and they have been easily adopted with all party support in provincial legislatures."

Pawson's article was written to ensure that momentum wasn't thrown off track by the discrediting practice of "sound bite science." The sound bite in question was the oft-quoted statistic that smoking in a car is 23 times more toxic than smoking at home — a statement that has been disproven. "There is good evidence to show that children's exposure to second-hand smoke in cars is dangerous," he said.

For Cunningham, the debate was over long before Pawson's article. "There is no debate," he said. "There's much greater knowledge of the dangers of second-hand smoke than there was in the past and people, even smokers, don't want to expose their kids in a car."

Three countries — Mauritius, South Africa and Bahrain — have banned the practice.

January 14, 2011 - The Tobacco Control bill has been scrapped. In its place the Attorney General’s Department has drafted a Public Health bill, under which strategies for tobacco control have been listed.

Officials say the new bill is more comprehensive and deals with all aspects of public health, including smoking and tobacco use.

Estelle Appiah, who heads the Legislative Drafting Division of the Attorney General’s Department, told Joy News the new bill is before Cabinet. (July 8, 2010 - PUBLIC HEALTH BILL/TOBACCO CONTROL BILL BEFORE CABINET)“Tobacco is very much a public health issue and the Ministry of Justice in consultation with the Ministry of Health has prepared a Public Health Bill which is divided into eight parts…and part six of the bill has the Tobacco Control provisions,” she said.

Explaining the incorporation of the tobacco control bit into the larger Public Health Bill, Estelle said, “access to the law is a problem in our country and we figured that having all the laws that relate to public health in one place will be very useful to the public.

January 15, 2011 - New graphic images depicting the negative impact of smoking on health will soon be dominating cigarette packets across the country, according to health officials.

Background: In March, 2005, the Jordanian government announced that it would require an image of a diseased lung to be printed on cigarette packages. The health warnings cover 33% of the front and 33% of the back of the package. Overall, 33% of the package space is appropriated to health warnings. One side of the package covers a pictorial warning, while the other side covers a text-only warning. Jordan utilizes two warnings on their packages, one pictorial warning and one text warning.

Four images featuring lung and lip cancers and stained teeth will be printed on 50 percent of one side of each cigarette packet under an initiative spearheaded by the health ministry to highlight diseases related to smoking. “The warning images will also include a pregnant woman smoking to highlight the risks associated with smoking during pregnancy,” Bassam Hijjawi, director of the ministry’s disease control department, told The Jordan Times over the phone on Sunday.He added that the unsightly images will be featured on all tobacco products within the next six months, noting that the initiative was delayed by logistical issues.

“This is why a lot of tobacco companies have resorted to giving away free leather cases to hide the images,” Hijjawi said, indicating that Jordan was the first country in the region to put warning graphics on cigarette packets.

Under its adoption of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), in 2006 the Kingdom obliged local tobacco companies to include an image of diseased lungs on cigarette packs as an additional warning against the dangers of smoking.

January 13, 2011 - The United States District Court Eastern District of New York today, January 13th dismissed a lawsuit by a group of New York plaintiffs seeking class certification in a medical monitoring lawsuit filed against Philip Morris USA.

The Court ruled that there was no legal basis for claims made by plaintiffs in Caronia v. Philip Morris USA (case number 06-cv-00224) requesting that the company pay for annual low-dose CT scans for long-term smokers to determine whether they have lung cancer. The court dismissed the lawsuit finding that plaintiffs' medical monitoring and implied warranty claims were legally invalid.

Background: A group of long-term Marlboro smokers filed an unusual lawsuit yesterday, January 19, 2006 against Philip Morris USA, seeking to require the company to pay for medical tests to detect early-stage lung cancer. While most tobacco-related lawsuits have sought billions of dollars in punitive damages, this suit, filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, asks that Philip Morris USA, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes and a unit of Altria, be required to pay for low-dose CT scan tests, a new method for identifying potentially cancerous lesions in the lungs. (Marlboro Smokers' Group Names Philip Morris in Suit by MELANIE WARNER, New York Times, 1/20/2006)

Advanced CT imaging can reduce deaths from lung cancer by 20% among heavy smokers by detecting tumors at an earlier stage when they are more treatable, according to results released Thursday from the first study to compare the value of CT scans and regular chest X-rays for lung cancer screening. (CT scans of smokers can reduce lung cancer deaths by 20%, study reports, smokersinfo.net, 11/5/2010.

"This decision recognizes that the plaintiffs were unable to establish that the defendant's tortious (wrongful) conduct 'is what caused them to be exposed to harmful smoke sufficient to require medical monitoring. . .'," said Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel, speaking on behalf of Philip Morris USA. "We believe the Court's sound reasoning applies to other medical monitoring cases brought against Philip Morris USA." Two Key Cases Challenge Philip Morris on Early-Stage Lung Cancer Detection, Sheri Qualters, The National Law Journal, 1/8/2009.

January 14, 2011 - The Altria Group will host a live audio webcast at www.altria.com from 09.00 hours Eastern Time on January 27 to discuss its 2010 fourth-quarter and full-year business results. The business results will be issued through a press release at about 07.00 hours on the same day.

During the webcast, which will be in listen-only mode, Michael E. Szymanczyk, Altria's chairman and CEO, and Howard A. Willard, its executive vice president and CFO, will discuss the company's results and answer questions from the investment community and news media.

Pre-event registration is necessary at www.altria.com, where an archived copy will be available until 17.00 hours on February 25.

January 14, 2011 - Bulgaria and all other European Union (EU) states should be completely free to decide their excise duties for tobacco, alcohol and energy, according to the Bulgarian rightist SDS party (Union of Democratic Forces). "Bulgaria's government should consider bringing up the proposal for the abolishment of the excise duties' minimum rates in EU," was the party's official position, expressed on Tuesday, January 11, 2011.

Background: the European Council, the institution of the European Union (EU) responsible for defining the general political direction and priorities of the Union) om Tuesday, February 16, 2010 adopted a directive updating EU rules on the structure and rates of excise duties on cigarettes and other tobacco products (17778/09 + 5807/10). The directive is intended to ensure a higher level of public health protection by raising minimum excise duties on cigarettes, whilst bringing the minimum rates for fine-cut tobacco gradually into line with those for cigarettes. (European Council Updates Excise Duties On Cigarettes And Tobacco Products..)

Martin Dimitrov, leader of SDS, has stated: "Bulgaria should unite with all other Central and Eastern European states against the minimum rates. Otherwise, EU will lag behind the rest of the civilized world." He pointed out that the impoverished countries on EU's external border are currently suffering from vast smuggling due to the partial restrictions imposed on duty rates. "The average salary in Germany is 5 times bigger than Bulgaria's, therefore the excise duty rates should be 5 times lower than Germany's," according to Dimitrov.

Dimitrov's SDS party is a part of the Bulgarian rightist Blue Coalition, which initially supported the country's ruling centrist GERB (Citizens For European Development of Bulgaria) government, but has grown increasingly critical towards it.Although there is no full harmonization of the excise duty rates throughout the European Union has not been established be the Council of Ministers for the Internal Market, a series of minimum rates were agreed. Above these minimum rates Member States retain sovereignty to set excise duty rates at levels they consider appropriate according to their own national circumstances.

January 14, 2011 - Anti-smoking campaigners have expressed outrage over an Indonesian court debating whether tobacco is addictive, despite international consensus that it is. A 2009 health law lists tobacco as an addictive substance but farmers from one of the country's most fertile tobacco-growing regions, Central Java, are fighting this label in a constitutional court, citing the threat to their livelihoods.

Several witnesses testified to the court that tobacco is not only not addictive, but that it is accepted as a halal(legal) product and can actually be good for one's health. Professor Sutiman Sumitro, a molecular biologist at Brawijaya University, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program the danger posed by the tobacco is 'relative'. Sumitro: "Cigarettes are only addictive for certain people. It depends on how your body reacts to it. Some can give up easily, some can't."

Dr Simon Chapman, Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney, says the international evidence does not support that. "If you look at their internal documents which have been made available on the world wide web through court action in the US, there are just truckloads of documents which show that they know exactly how addictive it is," he said.

One witness, the Director of Litigation from the Justice Ministry, Mualimin Abdi, reportedly told the court it's 'nonsense' to say quitting smoking is difficult, and that it didn't take him long at all. He also reportedly reminded the court that Indonesia earns over $US6 billion in tobacco taxes every year.

Dr Kartono Mohamad, from the Tobacco Control Network, says it's the cigarette industry who are worried about tobacco being listed as addictive in the Health Law."They feel threatened by this categorising it as an addictive officially in the law, maybe they feel threatened that the industry cannot really expand production in terms of number of cigarettes," he said.

In Indonesia, 63 percent of men in the country smoke.

Young smokers.. Indonesia has a higher percentage of young smokers than any other country, but ignorance and a powerful tobacco lobby are making it difficult to stamp out nicotine addiction, say health workers and the government. With a population of 230 million, Indonesia ranks third in the world according to the number of smokers, after China and India, whose respective populations are more than one billion, according to the former head of Indonesia's Medical Association, Kartono Mohamad. While China and India may have more smokers given their larger populations, Indonesia has a higher prevalence among youngsters, he added.

According to the Indonesian Health Ministry's 2008 health profile, 29 percent of Indonesians aged 10 and above smoke an average 12 cigarettes a day. Some 10 percent started smoking at between 10 and 14 years while 0.1 percent started as young as five, according to the report, which was released in 2010.

"Three in four adult males in Indonesia smoke and the worst thing is they smoke in the presence of children and pregnant women," said Mohamad, now a campaigner for the Indonesian Tobacco Control Network, an NGO.

The World Health Organisation says in 2005, 400,000 Indonesians died from tobacco-related diseases, and that economic losses due to mortality and disability cost the country much more than what tobacco taxes brought in.

Local media reports the judges have one more hearing before a verdict is reached.

January 14, 2011 - Dr. Michael Cummings, an international leader in tobacco control and chairman of the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. provides his opinion that communities should be allowed to regulate signage.

Buffalo and communities across the country are considering the adoption of policies to require the placement of pictorial point-of-sale signage that would inform consumers where to get free help to stop smoking and to educate all those who enter stores about the dangers of tobacco.

These plans were dealt a setback for on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 a federal judge struck down New York City’s health regulation requiring convenience stores and other tobacco retailers to post graphic warning signs on the grave dangers of tobacco use – either where tobacco products are displayed or at the cash register. The signs showed graphic images of a diseased lung, a brain damaged by a stroke, and a decaying tooth and gums, and included information about the dangers of smoking, along with a quitline number. (Judge Rakoff's opinion and order (Case 1:10-cv-04392-JSR)

For background information on the NY City health officials requiring stores that sell tobacco products to display graphic anti-smoking signs..Judge Rakoff's opinion was based on a federal law, enacted in 1965, prohibited localities from issuing health warnings on cigarette packs and was amended in 1969 to include advertising. The intent was to ensure a common set of health warnings on packs sold and advertising. No one is suggesting that this provision of the federal law be changed. However, extending this prohibition to include signs placed in stores licensed to sell tobacco products is well beyond the scope of the original federal law, and belies common sense. Local communities certainly should have the right to mandate educational signage at the point of sale.

January 14, 2011 - Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) announced today, January 14th that it has reached an agreement to sell Lane Limited, to Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S (STG), a global company based in Denmark. Under terms of the transaction, STG has agreed to pay $205 million in cash for Lane. The Lane operations contribute approximately $0.04 per share to RAI’s annual earnings. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2011, pending anti-trust review and approval.

Lane Limited manufactures and markets specialty tobacco products. It provides pipe tobaccos, rolling tobaccos, cigarettes, and cigars, as well as sells hand-rolling cigarette machines, and cigarette tubes and papers. The company offers bulk pipe-tobaccos for specialist smoke shops. It exports its products to Japan, Nigeria, Turkey, and Russia. Lane Limited also markets a range of cigars from Holland, as well as cigarette brands from Jamaica and Canada. The company was founded in 1890 and is based in Tucker, Georgia. Lane Limited operates as a subsidiary of Reynolds American, Inc.

Lane has about 110 employees at two facilities in Tucker — a manufacturing and office facility, and a leased warehousing facility. Under terms of the agreement, STG will take over Lane’s facilities and expects to continue to operate them.

January 14, 2011 - While cross-border smuggling in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta's border areas has decreased somewhat, no headway has been made against the trafficking of cigarette, local authorities concede.

They say that the highly porous borders, lack of co-ordination between concerned agencies, lax local management as well as increasingly sophisticated and risky ruses employed by smugglers make containment extremely difficult.

The three hotspots for the smuggling in the region are the provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Kien Giang, all of which border Cambodia. In the lead up to the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival, the inflow of smuggled cigarettes from this area to Ho Chi Minh City (HCM City) has increased significantly.

The three Mekong Delta provinces account for 80 percent of the total smuggled cigarettes consumed in the HCM City and the Delta markets.The most common method of smuggling cigarette was to transport them after splitting the cargo into smaller amounts, mostly by motorbikes that travel at high speed. The drivers always chose to go into heavy traffic during peak hours, making it very difficult for the police and customs officers to chase and catch them.

According to the Viet Nam Tobacco Association, only one per cent, or 7.3 million packs, of the total cigarettes smuggled into Viet Nam was seized last year. Around 800 million packs were smuggled into Viet Nam last year through the southern region's western border, equivalent to 20 percent of the nation's total consumption.

Last year saw Kien Giang customs and police crack 38 smuggling cases and seize property worth more than VND300 million (US$15,300), including a small number of cigarette cases. This was 24 per cent lower than the previous year. In the first 11 months of last year, anti-smuggling forces in Long An managed to seize only around 900,000 packs of cigarette.

January 13, 2011 - Combined Internet and telephone treatment of smoking cessation outperform static and dynamic Internet interventions, according to the results of a 3-group, randomized controlled trial reported in the January 10 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

A priori hypotheses were that Internet enhanced with tailored content and social support would outperform basic Internet (BI) and that enhanced Internet (EI) plus proactive telephone counseling would outperform the other conditions.

January 13, 2011 - The Department for Environmental Health within the Public Health Regulation Division notifies the public that the following regulations were published in the Government Gazette of the 8th January, 2010 as follows.

January 14, 2011 - Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in the United States, resulting in an estimated 443,000 premature deaths and $193 billion in direct health-care expenditures and productivity losses each year.

Each day in the United States, approximately 3,900 persons aged 12--17 years smoke their first cigarette, and an estimated 1,000 adolescents become daily cigarette smokers (8). The vast majority of persons who begin smoking during adolescence are addicted to nicotine by age 20 (9).

January 13, 2011 - Roll-your-own cigarettes (Rollies) may be more addictive than factory-mades, a study has suggested. The New Zealand study builds on research indicating these cheaper smokes are potentially more harmful. Rollies' potentially greater addictiveness is attributed to their higher tar/nicotine ratio.

While the addictiveness of nicotine is well established, Victoria University PhD graduate Amy Lewis works in the new field of searching for other bodily mechanisms for smoking addiction. She said yesterday she had found that tar from tobacco smoke contained a number of addictive elements.

"The vast majority of work done to date focuses only on nicotine and how it impacts on addictive pathways in the brain," Dr Lewis said, "but my work shows that other components in tobacco also play a big part. "There are so many different brain pathways all working together to establish and fortify tobacco addiction.

"Even though most smokers say they want to quit, few are successful and nicotine replacement therapies [NRTs] have proven to be remarkably ineffective at helping them break the habit." However, the Quitline says using NRT can double a smoker's chances of quitting, and the Health Ministry says that on average, people make 14 attempts to quit before succeeding.Public health specialist Dr Murray Laugesen said that if rollies were in fact more addictive, that would help explain New Zealand's higher rate of smoking than Australia's (20 per cent, compared with 17 per cent). It was "another dimension to the argument", following the release last year of research showing New Zealand smokers were exposed to much more tar and nicotine than Australians.

"The main thing about roll-your-owns is the price - they have been cheaper. That was the obvious reason why New Zealanders should prefer roll-your-owns. This [the Lewis research] adds a new twist." The Government moved to reduce the price gap in the tax rise last year by imposing a much greater hike on loose tobacco than factory-mades, but a gap remains. A cheaper brand factory-made cigarette now costs around 63c and a roll-your-own around 43c. Rollies are typically thinner but people smoke them more efficiently, potentially making them more harmful. Norwegian research shows that roll-your-own smokers have double the lung cancer risk of smokers of factory-mades.

Dr Laugesen said no data was available yet on smokers' preferences since the tax increases began last April, but beforehand 31 per cent of tobacco consumed in New Zealand was for rollies, up from 13 per cent in 1990.

Last week, FDA released Agency's first guidance for tobacco product manufacturers concerning the introduction of “new” tobacco products. The guidance was issued in final form since some manufacturers will need it to help them submit reports to FDA over the next few months.

A “new tobacco product” is a product that was not sold in the U.S. before February 15, 2007. Any change made to a tobacco product after that date also makes it a “new tobacco product.” In general, a tobacco product manufacturer must obtain an order after review of a premarket application under section 910(c)(1)(A)(i) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“the Act”) before the manufacturer may introduce a “new tobacco product.” Such an order is not required, however, if a manufacturer submits a report under section 905(j) of the Act for the new tobacco product (a “905(j) report”) and FDA issues an order finding that the tobacco product is (1) “substantially equivalent” to a tobacco product commercially marketed in the United States prior to February 15, 2007 or to a product found to be “substantially equivalent” to such a product (the “predicate tobacco product”), and (2) in compliance with the requirements of the law. The guidance describes the information manufacturers should submit in the 905(j) report in order for FDA to make a “substantial equivalence” determination.

January 12, 2011 - In Missouri Marlboro reds, the world's most popular brand, costs $5.14. By contrast, a pack of the same cigarettes runs as much as $13 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Missouri state representative Mary Still, a Democrat from Columbia, groused in a recent editorial, referring to the fact that Missouri now levies the lowest cigarette tax in the U.S.: 17 cents a pack. Missouri won this distinction this past summer when South Carolina lawmakers — shrugging off the influence of the state's tobacco growers — overrode outgoing Republican governor Mark Sanford's veto and raised its tax by half a buck per pack, from 7 cents to 57 cents. New York has the highest cigarette tax, at $4.35 a pack; the national average is $1.45 a pack, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Missouri - lowest tobacco tax in the nation with no increase in sight...

Both at the polls in statewide referendums and in the legislature, efforts to boost cigarette taxes are repeatedly shot down. Still is trying again in 2011: she's drafting a bill that would hike the tax by 12 cents each year for eight years. But antitax Republicans control both legislative chambers, and Democratic governor Jay Nixon has taken a no-new-taxes pledge. A spokesman for the governor, Scott Holste, wouldn't touch the tax idea with a 10-foot pole. "We're just not gonna weigh in on that right now," he said.The state is facing a budget shortfall of as much as $600 million next year. University of Missouri, which is staring at a potential $50 million cut from the state next year, recently hosted area lawmakers to brainstorm ideas for closing the budget gap. The cigarette tax came up because it seems to be low-hanging fruit, given the high social costs of smoking. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 23.1% of adult Missourians are smokers, among the highest rates in the nation. Kentucky is highest, with 25.7% of its residents lighting up. Smoking-related illnesses cost the Medicaid system some $641 million last year, according to the Missouri Budget Project, and the CDC says smoking kills at least 9,500 Missouri residents each year. And studies have shown that increasing cigarette taxes 10% can reduce consumption as much as 5%, especially among young people.

One thing that poses a problem in reforming cigarette taxes is the state constitution. Any major tax increase must go before the voters. (Still's proposed measure would avoid that fate by phasing in the tax in small steps.) In 2006, a proposal to raise the cigarette tax to 97 cents a pack lost a hard-fought referendum, 51% to 49%. Hospitals and health advocates poured millions into the campaign for the tax; opposition came from the tobacco lobby, gas stations and convenience stores. Posters at minimarts and filling stations across the state called for voters to "Stop Tax Abuse" and vote down a "470%" tax increase.

Both at the polls in statewide referendums and in the legislature, efforts to boost cigarette taxes are repeatedly shot down. Still is trying again in 2011: she's drafting a bill that would hike the tax by 12 cents each year for eight years. But antitax Republicans control both legislative chambers, and Democratic governor Jay Nixon has taken a no-new-taxes pledge. A spokesman for the governor, Scott Holste, wouldn't touch the tax idea with a 10-foot pole. "We're just not gonna weigh in on that right now," he said.

In Missouri local communities impose their own levies.

Much of Missouri's steadfast refusal to jack up sin taxes can be attributed to one man. For decades, Jefferson City's most revered and feared lobbyist was John Britton, who worked to protect both Big Tobacco and the brewery interests.

Some supporters of higher cigarette levies have begun to suggest that that this might be a good chance for Republicans to put Governor Nixon in a box. Suppose the legislature passed a cigarette tax to ward off school budget cuts and sent it for the governor's signature: Nixon would have to choose between breaking his no-tax pledge or leaving schools in the lurch.

January 12, 2011 - With the tremendous pressure being put by the anti-tobacco lobby and the health ministry when it comes to smoking or drinking liquor, celebrities are now shying away from endorsing tobacco and liquor products. Sources say that the tobacco and liquor companies have apparently decided to loosen their purse strings to the tune of Rs 25-30 crore (1 crore = 107 = 10,000,000.00 INR = 221,018.88 USD) for a single ad-deal to get a celeb on board, but find themselves up against a wall.

January 12, 2011 - Bhutan police can raid homes of smokers in a search for contraband (illegal,illicit) tobacco and are training a special tobacco sniffer dog in a crackdown to honor a promise to become the world's first smoke-free nation.Buddhist Bhutan, where smoking is considered bad for one's karma, banned the sale of tobacco in 2005, but with a thriving tobacco smuggling operation from neighboring India, the ban failed to make much of an impact. But legislation passed [to start] in the new year, granting police powers to enter homes, is set to stub out the habit, threatening five years in jail for shopkeepers selling tobacco and smokers who fail to provide customs receipts for imported cigarettes. (Bhutan - strict tobacco control law went into effect January 1, 2011..; Bhutan - strict application of the Tobacco Control Act to come into effect from January 2011..)

Smoking in private is not illegal in the Himalayan kingdom, but as the sale of cigarettes is banned, smokers are restricted to 200 cigarettes or 150 grams of other tobacco products a month that can be legally imported. And they must provide a customs receipt when challenged by police. The Bhutan Narcotic Control Agency has started raids, with officials allowed to enter homes if someone is seen smoking or if officials have reason to believe there is illegal tobacco there.